Chapter 6 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal by Rick Wormeli concerns how teachers should create good test questions. Many tips were suggested by Wormeli, such as using a variety of questions, making questions clear, avoid using negatives, keeping them short, and many more. Wormeli stresses that it is not fair to trick a student or for them to have to guess what their assessor wants them to say. Tests should be authentic and show what students have learned. Tess sums up the chapter’s theme well when she says, “students grades should not depend on whether or not they can decipher test questions, their grades should reflect their knowledge of the content (Tess).” To accomplish this, teachers should also try and make tests fun and avoid timing tests. To learn more about assessment, and teaching in general, the Association for Middle Level Education has an excellent podcast series here.
Synthesis
It is clear to see that all of us have experienced the misfortune of inefficient tests. There was a general frustration from the class about past teachers that developed tests that were unfair and did not capture their true understanding of the material. Keira mentions that timed tests are dangerous and should be used with caution. Sean, and many others, said how multiple-choice questions can be frustrating if they are left ambiguous. And still more of us talked about how test anxiety can rear its evil head if assessments are not made well. As a whole, our class appreciated the tips that Rick Wormeli provided in this chapter. Due to our past experiences many of us vowed to not subject our future students to what we had to go through. Basically, our goal “is to see what [our] students have learned, not to see how good they are at answering [a] confusing test (Tori)." To eliminate the test all together, one may look into Project Based Learning, or PBL.
Kiera Timme
In Chapter 6, of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, the author Rick Wormeli provides helpful suggestions on how to create test questions. The chapter outlines many of the common pitfalls in exam question design, and suggests ways in which to avoid them. In particular, Wormeli emphasizes the need for variety in test questions, and for the tests to demonstrate mastery, as opposed to memorization. The author also addresses the needs of the teachers. As with all tests, someone has to grade them. As such, the chapter provides useful ideas on how to manage grading in an efficient and effective way.
As a teacher in training, I often have grand ideas of the kinds of things I want to teach my students, as well as how I am going to assess the learning. This chapter helped me to think more practically about my role as “grader.” I think the idea of “double recording test responses” (Wormeli, p77) is great. One of the big ideas presented in this chapter was giving students prompt feedback, and the double record of test responses is a wonderful way to give students an idea of where they are at straight after a test. Another idea presented that I related to was the issue of timed tests. Speaking from experience, whenever I take a test and I feel like there is a time pressure, my anxiety levels rise and this can affect my ability focus, and it impedes my thought processing. Although timed tests have a place, I would definitely provide opportunities for students to take a test where they had more time, if the student expressed, or demonstrated a need.
Frank Makuch
Creating good test questions is important for one main reason. As teachers, we want to be able to assess how well a student understands a given topic. If we develop tests through this lens we will avoid many pitfalls. For example some test questions can be overly confusing, making the test a better assessment of reading skills than actual content. Other suggestions from the text include using a variety of questions, avoiding confusing negatives, keeping it short, and making the test efficient for students. Another good idea in the chapter is to have students double mark their quiz. That way they can tear off one set of the answers to hand in for grading and keep the other so the class can immediately go over the answers, providing instant feedback. Teachers should try to make their test questions fine by occasionally slipping in a pun or a question involving a student. This can help the test taker relax so that they get a more accurate score. Another way to help get a student a more accurate score is to space out the most difficult test questions instead of leaving them all for the end. This keeps the students brain stimulated at all times. It is important to note that this is not universally accepted, but it will happen in my classroom. There is a lot of practical knowledge in this chapter and most of it seems very useful. Tests should test content and not reading comprehension or anything else. I will do my best to assess that knowledge.
Garrett Hodgkins
Chapter 10 goes over the importance of assessing students in a differentiated way, dealing with all of the multiple intelligences. It stresses the point of what is the use of teaching them in a differentiated way if you are only going to test them in a standard way? They may have learned the material in a way that was best suited to their learning style, but when tested in an opposite way all of that might as well have gone out the window. It further goes into different ways that you can assess how a student is doing in a particular area from observing particular actions or work they have done, along with how to relate assessment questions to each area of intelligence ( I particularly loved the Huck Finn examples). This chapter gave me some good insight on what I will have to do if I expect to have a differentiated classroom, and how to assess that differentiated classroom. It showed the importance of not only teaching to address all students' intelligences, but to also assess them in the same way. If a student learns a subject in a way that suits his intelligence, but is only assessed in something the opposite, it is not assessing that student fairly. I really enjoyed the examples they gave on how to form questions to suit each learning style, and that is certainly something i will use in a future classroom.
Sean Falasca
I’ve had multiple-choice tests before where I thought the answer could be multiple choices, but I couldn’t read the teachers mind on which one they were looking for. Chapter six starts out on a relatable note. Be clear with test questions. Tests aren’t guessing games. Using mixed traditional (multiple choice, true/false, fill in the missing word, etc.) and not-so-traditional questions (analogies, drawings, diagrams, etc.) and prompts can be good ways to test students if done properly. Also, using mixed “forced choice” and “constructed response” can be an asset for students. “Forced choices” are questions and prompts provided by the teacher (true/false, matching, and multiple choice) and “constructed responses” are questions and prompts that students must generate information themselves and [[#|apply]] it as necessary (interpret graphs, write essays, short answers, mind maps, flowcharts analogies, or drawings). Make tests efficient like writing the “T’s” and “F’s” to circle on true/false questions, write definitions on left side and word bank on the right, keep matching on the same page, and keep fill-in-the-blanks items close to the end of a sentence or stem. Avoid confusing negative like “All of the above except C and E”. There were some things I didn’t agree with thought. The book says to make multiple choice answers in a pattern so they are easier to grade, but as a student I found myself recognizing patterns sometimes and second guessing myself thinking “There is no way I did this right, look at that crazy pattern.” So, I will never make my answers into a pattern even if it would make it easier to grade. Also, it says to include two special questions and to make one that at first sounds reasonable, but if examined closely is impossible. Why would I ever want to try and trick my students on a test? Earlier in this book it said to make tests clear, short, and accurate. Sounds like a contradiction to me that I will never do.
Tess Perry
The skills to create a test that accurately determine students understanding, knowledge, skill and mastery were discussed in chapter 6. Tests should be clear and organized as well as efficient to answer. Students grades should not depend on whether or not they can decipher test questions, their grades should reflect their knowledge of the content. Teachers should create clear prompts so students know exactly how and what they are expected to answer. The goal of tests is to assess students, not trick or connive them, make straight forward, to the point questions. By creating a well-organized test the grading process for the teacher will also be easier. Relying on one test at the conclusion of a unit does not set up students for success. Any number of things could go wrong for the student that one day. Use shorter mini assessments throughout units to ensure that student progress towards the end goal, total mastery. Producing a test that appraises student knowledge of information that was taught by me puts tremendous pressure on me. This chapter clearly outlined what constitutes a thorough and fair test. The section on assessing the important information reflects my personal thoughts on testing. Students should only be expected to learn and understand important information that will be used again, can be applied to future learning and will be relevant to them in the real world. Assessing students regularly throughout units is a method I will use to ensure students are advancing as I have planned for them too. This will also give students the opportunity to see my testing style several times, which I am sure will be different from other teachers they have had.
Jon Delorme
Chapter 6 – Creating Good Test Questions
If there was one thing I did not like about high school it was ambiguous test questions. The kind where I had to ask myself what the teacher wanted me to say. I agree with Rick Wormeli when he says that test questions like these have no place in a differentiated classroom. I do not think multiple-choice questions as a whole are wrong. I will probably use them in my future classroom. What Chapter 6 is trying to get to is that a successful differentiated classroom uses several “traditional and non-traditional questions and prompts (75).” Traditional problems are things such as multiple-choice questions and essays. Some non-traditional examples are things such as exclusion brainstorming and analogies. My Ecology professor last year had many different types of prompts on his tests throughout the year. From graphs, to short essays, to multiple choice and matching. His tests were hard but also really nice. I envision my tests to be similar to what his were like.
Much of Chapter 6 contains do’s and don’ts about phrasing and structuring test questions. Tips such as avoiding confusing negatives, making prompts clear, avoiding repeating similar questions too much, and being wary of timed tests. One tip I liked was to try and make questions fun. I do this with my Supplemental Instruction students. I often create silly questions concerning football players, flamingos, or deodorant. I think it makes completing a math problem that much more fun, which is beneficial because making people who normally hate math enjoy it just a little more is a win.
Kaitlyn Bowie
The focus of this chapter was on developing effective test questions that present and informative and accurate representation of the student’s understanding of the subject. There are two general types of questions, forced choice and constructed choice. Forced choice is when the teacher gives the students a selection of answers to choose from, usually seen in multiple choice or true/false tests. Constructed choice is when the teacher presents the student with a prompt, which forces the student to utilize what they have learned in order to best define or explain the prompt. With either kind of test, the teacher wants to design it as efficiently and straightforward as possible. By doing so the student will not feel as if they are solving a riddle, and can focus more on exhibiting their knowledge without being tripped up by trick words or confusing vocabulary. It is also advised that a series of smaller tests throughout the course of the year be utilized, instead of one giant test at the end. This puts less anxiety on the student, and will provide a more accurate snapshot. I have never been a good tester, but over the years I have found that when teachers utilize the strategies talked about in this chapter, I felt more comfortable and confident with my answers. While a large part of tests does rely on the student to take responsibility by studying and taking notes in class, a teacher cannot turn a test into a mind game and expect good results. Within the chapter there was a suggestion to prepare multiple versions of the test, but with different difficulty levels. I do like the idea of having a more difficult test, so that if a student has shown to understand above the standard, I can measure their progress in a way that accurately shows their advanced knowledge level. However, I am hesitant to make an easier version of the test for struggling students, due to the fact that I don’t feel it would be the most accurate representation.
Tori Penney
Chapter 6 of FIAE focuses on test questions and how to make a good test that actually assesses the student’s ability and not their ability to fulfill the teacher’s ideas of what is right. It argues not to use multiple choice questions because you are forcing the students to choose an answer instead of using their own thoughts. I feel like a lot of students like multiple choice because it takes the stress off, and that when students would prefer a multiple choice test they should be given one, it should just be modified. A good way to give them the opportunity to write what they think is a better answer is to give them another option where they can fill it in. Wormeli goes on to encourage short answers, essay questions, and drawing out formulas and diagrams. I feel like if a test is all essays and short answers, even now that I am in college, I get overwhelmed and it negatively affects my performance, especially if the test is timed, such as the finals. Long tests are exhausting and stop students from working at their full potential. I plan on giving short tests, when I give them, which are focused and simple to understand. My goal is to see what my students have learned, not to see how good they are at answering my confusing test and reading my mind. I don’t plan on giving that many tests in my classes, because I believe that tests ignore too many of the learning styles and so some students, such as verbal/linguistic students, have an upper hand on the assessment. I plan on giving students multiple options on how to prove their understanding of the subject.
Caroline Murphy
This chapter had a lot of very practical and specific advice for how to plan good assessments, and that is the kind of stuff that I will definitely remember when I am a teacher. I didn’t realize that so much thought was put into the kinds of questions that teachers ask on tests, but it was really informative to see how detailed and intricate they actually are. Paying attention to the way test questions are formatted is a great way to differentiate instruction too. I really liked the part of the chapter where the author said that the only way tests can give us an accurate picture of student achievement is to make questions that they actually have a good chance of answering. The test is meant to measure students’ knowledge of the content, not their ability to play word games. From my time in high school, I remember that nothing was more frustrating than feeling as though the teacher was trying to trick us with test questions. It distracts you from remembering what you are being tested on and it adds pressure and anxiety that can impede test taking. I thought the paragraph showing what goes through a student’s mind when they are stressed about a poorly-worded question was really eye-opening, and when I am a teacher I will definitely remember how I felt taking tests as a student. I’ve learned a lot more now about the different types of test questions, and I can see how important it is to differentiate not just instruction, but assessment too.
Alison Hutchins
Chapter 6 focuses heavily on how to put together a test, and create the best possible questions to assess your students' understanding. It definitely emphasizes how much work goes into effective test questions, which interested me a lot, as it wasn't really a subject that I had put too much thought into. A great portion was about how to keep students on their games during tests and to kind of keep them interested, which is by changing up the types of questions you're using. They give a lot of really specific advice, but the most important was probably one of the simplest; to be clear. All I could think about were all of the times in high school when I was sitting in a test and could not understand what the teacher wanted from me as an answer. Either the question was too broad or too bizarrely stated. I was once asked the who Angela's siblings were in Frank Mccourt's Angela's Ashes, I wrote down their names and ended up losing two points for not writing which was her brother and which was her sister; which I though was pretty clear. Giving students this kind of frustration is not helpful to the learning environment, and makes them second guess their knowledge. Making tests less terrible is really important because so many students are just terrified of tests when they really should not be. A teacher's job is not to play word games with students while assessing their understanding, or to try to trick them, and not being clear does this, whether it is intentional or not. This is definitely something that I'll strive to be aware of, as I remember being a student and feeling the pains of test anxiety that sitting down to some teachers' assessments would give me.
Amy Jones
The chapter primarily focuses on the different helpful hints in prepare a test for students. These examples are:
Make It Efficient for Students: try provided the answer for the student to circle rather than writing out, or try to avoid the constant flipping of pages due to questions/answers on different pages.
Double Recording of Test Responses: I have never had a teacher do this for me but this would have made it so much less stressful for me. This helpful hint has the students copy their answers in 2 different spots, so this way when everyone has handed in their test, the teacher can go over the answers and the students would be exactly what they got.
Make Prompts Clear: this also means avoiding confusing negatives.
Keep It Short: There are concepts that need extra questions to fully assess the students learning, but for the ones that don’t, don’t make it longer for you and the student as it is unnecessary.
Be Careful of Timed Tests: this will eliminate much needed stress when taking test, because for most students they will be stressing to see if they will finish in time instead of the questions in front of them.
Put Some Fun into Test Questions: it is said that “Humor relaxes students” (pg 82), and isn’t taking a test easier if you are more relaxed?
Make Questions Authentic to the Instruction: If the student sees something that they aren’t use to, they will think they don’t know the answers.
Use Smaller Tests Over Time: this will allow you to assess your teaching as well.
All of these helpful hints will make my process in formulating test much easier. These hints are amazing and they make so much sense. The reasons we give test are to assess the students learning not to make test so hard that the student gets frustrated.
Molly Olsen
There are quite a few ways to go about writing a set of good test questions, but in order to do so, you have to keep a lot of things in mind. For instance: What information do you want to glean from their answers? Are the questions clear enough? Is this the best format for these kind of questions? There's a lot to it, and this chapter offered a few ways to improve your style of test-making.
One way to keep students concentrated and not bored to death during your test is to vary the kinds of questions or prompts you're using. This will keep them on their toes mentally, as well as allow you to see that they understand what is being tested from all angles. It is important also that you avoid confusing the students. Using negatives in a question can sometimes confuse younger students, so it's best to always write the questions in the positive format. If you do wish to use the negative, consider bolding it or something similar to ensure that they're truly answering the question, because if they get it wrong due to a reading error, you're not really testing for understanding the content at all, are you? Make your prompts and questions clear. Timed tests can cause stress and skew your data, keeping a test shorter will allow students to focus more easily as it's for a shorter amount of time. Teir questions as warranted, but also try to put a little fun into the questions, as this returns again to the idea of keeping kids on their toes, always guessing. I think all of these are great ideas, and that I will use them in my future tests so that taking them doesn't become monotonous. One example I saw discussed putting students in sentences from the tests doing odd things like buying yachts or 100 watermelons, and when I mentioned this idea to my roommate she reminded me that people love to hear / see their names, and seeing their fellow peers in silly circumstances could be funny.
Table of Contents
Jon Delorme Abstract and Synthesis
Abstract
Chapter 6 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal by Rick Wormeli concerns how teachers should create good test questions. Many tips were suggested by Wormeli, such as using a variety of questions, making questions clear, avoid using negatives, keeping them short, and many more. Wormeli stresses that it is not fair to trick a student or for them to have to guess what their assessor wants them to say. Tests should be authentic and show what students have learned. Tess sums up the chapter’s theme well when she says, “students grades should not depend on whether or not they can decipher test questions, their grades should reflect their knowledge of the content (Tess).” To accomplish this, teachers should also try and make tests fun and avoid timing tests. To learn more about assessment, and teaching in general, the Association for Middle Level Education has an excellent podcast series here.Synthesis
It is clear to see that all of us have experienced the misfortune of inefficient tests. There was a general frustration from the class about past teachers that developed tests that were unfair and did not capture their true understanding of the material. Keira mentions that timed tests are dangerous and should be used with caution. Sean, and many others, said how multiple-choice questions can be frustrating if they are left ambiguous. And still more of us talked about how test anxiety can rear its evil head if assessments are not made well. As a whole, our class appreciated the tips that Rick Wormeli provided in this chapter. Due to our past experiences many of us vowed to not subject our future students to what we had to go through. Basically, our goal “is to see what [our] students have learned, not to see how good they are at answering [a] confusing test (Tori)." To eliminate the test all together, one may look into Project Based Learning, or PBL.Kiera Timme
In Chapter 6, of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, the author Rick Wormeli provides helpful suggestions on how to create test questions. The chapter outlines many of the common pitfalls in exam question design, and suggests ways in which to avoid them. In particular, Wormeli emphasizes the need for variety in test questions, and for the tests to demonstrate mastery, as opposed to memorization. The author also addresses the needs of the teachers. As with all tests, someone has to grade them. As such, the chapter provides useful ideas on how to manage grading in an efficient and effective way.As a teacher in training, I often have grand ideas of the kinds of things I want to teach my students, as well as how I am going to assess the learning. This chapter helped me to think more practically about my role as “grader.” I think the idea of “double recording test responses” (Wormeli, p77) is great. One of the big ideas presented in this chapter was giving students prompt feedback, and the double record of test responses is a wonderful way to give students an idea of where they are at straight after a test. Another idea presented that I related to was the issue of timed tests. Speaking from experience, whenever I take a test and I feel like there is a time pressure, my anxiety levels rise and this can affect my ability focus, and it impedes my thought processing. Although timed tests have a place, I would definitely provide opportunities for students to take a test where they had more time, if the student expressed, or demonstrated a need.
Frank Makuch
Creating good test questions is important for one main reason. As teachers, we want to be able to assess how well a student understands a given topic. If we develop tests through this lens we will avoid many pitfalls. For example some test questions can be overly confusing, making the test a better assessment of reading skills than actual content. Other suggestions from the text include using a variety of questions, avoiding confusing negatives, keeping it short, and making the test efficient for students. Another good idea in the chapter is to have students double mark their quiz. That way they can tear off one set of the answers to hand in for grading and keep the other so the class can immediately go over the answers, providing instant feedback. Teachers should try to make their test questions fine by occasionally slipping in a pun or a question involving a student. This can help the test taker relax so that they get a more accurate score. Another way to help get a student a more accurate score is to space out the most difficult test questions instead of leaving them all for the end. This keeps the students brain stimulated at all times. It is important to note that this is not universally accepted, but it will happen in my classroom. There is a lot of practical knowledge in this chapter and most of it seems very useful. Tests should test content and not reading comprehension or anything else. I will do my best to assess that knowledge.Garrett Hodgkins
Chapter 10 goes over the importance of assessing students in a differentiated way, dealing with all of the multiple intelligences. It stresses the point of what is the use of teaching them in a differentiated way if you are only going to test them in a standard way? They may have learned the material in a way that was best suited to their learning style, but when tested in an opposite way all of that might as well have gone out the window. It further goes into different ways that you can assess how a student is doing in a particular area from observing particular actions or work they have done, along with how to relate assessment questions to each area of intelligence ( I particularly loved the Huck Finn examples).This chapter gave me some good insight on what I will have to do if I expect to have a differentiated classroom, and how to assess that differentiated classroom. It showed the importance of not only teaching to address all students' intelligences, but to also assess them in the same way. If a student learns a subject in a way that suits his intelligence, but is only assessed in something the opposite, it is not assessing that student fairly. I really enjoyed the examples they gave on how to form questions to suit each learning style, and that is certainly something i will use in
a future classroom.
Sean Falasca
I’ve had multiple-choice tests before where I thought the answer could be multiple choices, but I couldn’t read the teachers mind on which one they were looking for. Chapter six starts out on a relatable note. Be clear with test questions. Tests aren’t guessing games. Using mixed traditional (multiple choice, true/false, fill in the missing word, etc.) and not-so-traditional questions (analogies, drawings, diagrams, etc.) and prompts can be good ways to test students if done properly. Also, using mixed “forced choice” and “constructed response” can be an asset for students. “Forced choices” are questions and prompts provided by the teacher (true/false, matching, and multiple choice) and “constructed responses” are questions and prompts that students must generate information themselves and [[#|apply]] it as necessary (interpret graphs, write essays, short answers, mind maps, flowcharts analogies, or drawings). Make tests efficient like writing the “T’s” and “F’s” to circle on true/false questions, write definitions on left side and word bank on the right, keep matching on the same page, and keep fill-in-the-blanks items close to the end of a sentence or stem. Avoid confusing negative like “All of the above except C and E”. There were some things I didn’t agree with thought. The book says to make multiple choice answers in a pattern so they are easier to grade, but as a student I found myself recognizing patterns sometimes and second guessing myself thinking “There is no way I did this right, look at that crazy pattern.” So, I will never make my answers into a pattern even if it would make it easier to grade. Also, it says to include two special questions and to make one that at first sounds reasonable, but if examined closely is impossible. Why would I ever want to try and trick my students on a test? Earlier in this book it said to make tests clear, short, and accurate. Sounds like a contradiction to me that I will never do.Tess Perry
The skills to create a test that accurately determine students understanding, knowledge, skill and mastery were discussed in chapter 6. Tests should be clear and organized as well as efficient to answer. Students grades should not depend on whether or not they can decipher test questions, their grades should reflect their knowledge of the content. Teachers should create clear prompts so students know exactly how and what they are expected to answer. The goal of tests is to assess students, not trick or connive them, make straight forward, to the point questions. By creating a well-organized test the grading process for the teacher will also be easier. Relying on one test at the conclusion of a unit does not set up students for success. Any number of things could go wrong for the student that one day. Use shorter mini assessments throughout units to ensure that student progress towards the end goal, total mastery.Producing a test that appraises student knowledge of information that was taught by me puts tremendous pressure on me. This chapter clearly outlined what constitutes a thorough and fair test. The section on assessing the important information reflects my personal thoughts on testing. Students should only be expected to learn and understand important information that will be used again, can be applied to future learning and will be relevant to them in the real world. Assessing students regularly throughout units is a method I will use to ensure students are advancing as I have planned for them too. This will also give students the opportunity to see my testing style several times, which I am sure will be different from other teachers they have had.
Jon Delorme
Chapter 6 – Creating Good Test Questions
If there was one thing I did not like about high school it was ambiguous test questions. The kind where I had to ask myself what the teacher wanted me to say. I agree with Rick Wormeli when he says that test questions like these have no place in a differentiated classroom. I do not think multiple-choice questions as a whole are wrong. I will probably use them in my future classroom. What Chapter 6 is trying to get to is that a successful differentiated classroom uses several “traditional and non-traditional questions and prompts (75).” Traditional problems are things such as multiple-choice questions and essays. Some non-traditional examples are things such as exclusion brainstorming and analogies. My Ecology professor last year had many different types of prompts on his tests throughout the year. From graphs, to short essays, to multiple choice and matching. His tests were hard but also really nice. I envision my tests to be similar to what his were like.
Much of Chapter 6 contains do’s and don’ts about phrasing and structuring test questions. Tips such as avoiding confusing negatives, making prompts clear, avoiding repeating similar questions too much, and being wary of timed tests. One tip I liked was to try and make questions fun. I do this with my Supplemental Instruction students. I often create silly questions concerning football players, flamingos, or deodorant. I think it makes completing a math problem that much more fun, which is beneficial because making people who normally hate math enjoy it just a little more is a win.
Kaitlyn Bowie
The focus of this chapter was on developing effective test questions that present and informative and accurate representation of the student’s understanding of the subject. There are two general types of questions, forced choice and constructed choice. Forced choice is when the teacher gives the students a selection of answers to choose from, usually seen in multiple choice or true/false tests. Constructed choice is when the teacher presents the student with a prompt, which forces the student to utilize what they have learned in order to best define or explain the prompt. With either kind of test, the teacher wants to design it as efficiently and straightforward as possible. By doing so the student will not feel as if they are solving a riddle, and can focus more on exhibiting their knowledge without being tripped up by trick words or confusing vocabulary. It is also advised that a series of smaller tests throughout the course of the year be utilized, instead of one giant test at the end. This puts less anxiety on the student, and will provide a more accurate snapshot.I have never been a good tester, but over the years I have found that when teachers utilize the strategies talked about in this chapter, I felt more comfortable and confident with my answers. While a large part of tests does rely on the student to take responsibility by studying and taking notes in class, a teacher cannot turn a test into a mind game and expect good results. Within the chapter there was a suggestion to prepare multiple versions of the test, but with different difficulty levels. I do like the idea of having a more difficult test, so that if a student has shown to understand above the standard, I can measure their progress in a way that accurately shows their advanced knowledge level. However, I am hesitant to make an easier version of the test for struggling students, due to the fact that I don’t feel it would be the most accurate representation.
Tori Penney
Chapter 6 of FIAE focuses on test questions and how to make a good test that actually assesses the student’s ability and not their ability to fulfill the teacher’s ideas of what is right. It argues not to use multiple choice questions because you are forcing the students to choose an answer instead of using their own thoughts. I feel like a lot of students like multiple choice because it takes the stress off, and that when students would prefer a multiple choice test they should be given one, it should just be modified. A good way to give them the opportunity to write what they think is a better answer is to give them another option where they can fill it in. Wormeli goes on to encourage short answers, essay questions, and drawing out formulas and diagrams. I feel like if a test is all essays and short answers, even now that I am in college, I get overwhelmed and it negatively affects my performance, especially if the test is timed, such as the finals. Long tests are exhausting and stop students from working at their full potential. I plan on giving short tests, when I give them, which are focused and simple to understand. My goal is to see what my students have learned, not to see how good they are at answering my confusing test and reading my mind. I don’t plan on giving that many tests in my classes, because I believe that tests ignore too many of the learning styles and so some students, such as verbal/linguistic students, have an upper hand on the assessment. I plan on giving students multiple options on how to prove their understanding of the subject.Caroline Murphy
This chapter had a lot of very practical and specific advice for how to plan good assessments, and that is the kind of stuff that I will definitely remember when I am a teacher. I didn’t realize that so much thought was put into the kinds of questions that teachers ask on tests, but it was really informative to see how detailed and intricate they actually are. Paying attention to the way test questions are formatted is a great way to differentiate instruction too. I really liked the part of the chapter where the author said that the only way tests can give us an accurate picture of student achievement is to make questions that they actually have a good chance of answering. The test is meant to measure students’ knowledge of the content, not their ability to play word games. From my time in high school, I remember that nothing was more frustrating than feeling as though the teacher was trying to trick us with test questions. It distracts you from remembering what you are being tested on and it adds pressure and anxiety that can impede test taking. I thought the paragraph showing what goes through a student’s mind when they are stressed about a poorly-worded question was really eye-opening, and when I am a teacher I will definitely remember how I felt taking tests as a student. I’ve learned a lot more now about the different types of test questions, and I can see how important it is to differentiate not just instruction, but assessment too.Alison Hutchins
Chapter 6 focuses heavily on how to put together a test, and create the best possible questions to assess your students' understanding. It definitely emphasizes how much work goes into effective test questions, which interested me a lot, as it wasn't really a subject that I had put too much thought into. A great portion was about how to keep students on their games during tests and to kind of keep them interested, which is by changing up the types of questions you're using. They give a lot of really specific advice, but the most important was probably one of the simplest; to be clear. All I could think about were all of the times in high school when I was sitting in a test and could not understand what the teacher wanted from me as an answer. Either the question was too broad or too bizarrely stated. I was once asked the who Angela's siblings were in Frank Mccourt's Angela's Ashes, I wrote down their names and ended up losing two points for not writing which was her brother and which was her sister; which I though was pretty clear. Giving students this kind of frustration is not helpful to the learning environment, and makes them second guess their knowledge.Making tests less terrible is really important because so many students are just terrified of tests when they really should not be. A teacher's job is not to play word games with students while assessing their understanding, or to try to trick them, and not being clear does this, whether it is intentional or not. This is definitely something that I'll strive to be aware of, as I remember being a student and feeling the pains of test anxiety that sitting down to some teachers' assessments would give me.
Amy Jones
The chapter primarily focuses on the different helpful hints in prepare a test for students. These examples are:- Make It Efficient for Students: try provided the answer for the student to circle rather than writing out, or try to avoid the constant flipping of pages due to questions/answers on different pages.
- Double Recording of Test Responses: I have never had a teacher do this for me but this would have made it so much less stressful for me. This helpful hint has the students copy their answers in 2 different spots, so this way when everyone has handed in their test, the teacher can go over the answers and the students would be exactly what they got.
- Make Prompts Clear: this also means avoiding confusing negatives.
- Keep It Short: There are concepts that need extra questions to fully assess the students learning, but for the ones that don’t, don’t make it longer for you and the student as it is unnecessary.
- Be Careful of Timed Tests: this will eliminate much needed stress when taking test, because for most students they will be stressing to see if they will finish in time instead of the questions in front of them.
- Put Some Fun into Test Questions: it is said that “Humor relaxes students” (pg 82), and isn’t taking a test easier if you are more relaxed?
- Make Questions Authentic to the Instruction: If the student sees something that they aren’t use to, they will think they don’t know the answers.
- Use Smaller Tests Over Time: this will allow you to assess your teaching as well.
All of these helpful hints will make my process in formulating test much easier. These hints are amazing and they make so much sense. The reasons we give test are to assess the students learning not to make test so hard that the student gets frustrated.Molly Olsen
There are quite a few ways to go about writing a set of good test questions, but in order to do so, you have to keep a lot of things in mind. For instance: What information do you want to glean from their answers? Are the questions clear enough? Is this the best format for these kind of questions? There's a lot to it, and this chapter offered a few ways to improve your style of test-making.One way to keep students concentrated and not bored to death during your test is to vary the kinds of questions or prompts you're using. This will keep them on their toes mentally, as well as allow you to see that they understand what is being tested from all angles. It is important also that you avoid confusing the students. Using negatives in a question can sometimes confuse younger students, so it's best to always write the questions in the positive format. If you do wish to use the negative, consider bolding it or something similar to ensure that they're truly answering the question, because if they get it wrong due to a reading error, you're not really testing for understanding the content at all, are you? Make your prompts and questions clear. Timed tests can cause stress and skew your data, keeping a test shorter will allow students to focus more easily as it's for a shorter amount of time. Teir questions as warranted, but also try to put a little fun into the questions, as this returns again to the idea of keeping kids on their toes, always guessing. I think all of these are great ideas, and that I will use them in my future tests so that taking them doesn't become monotonous. One example I saw discussed putting students in sentences from the tests doing odd things like buying yachts or 100 watermelons, and when I mentioned this idea to my roommate she reminded me that people love to hear / see their names, and seeing their fellow peers in silly circumstances could be funny.